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Fr. Joseph Kanimea msc
mscsamoa@samoa.ws
Leulumoega, Apia
Samoa
18 June 2001
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TO,
Paul Nuti: I think I remember you. I was attending Rabi Junior
secondary school at that time. If I'm right you was staying at
"Teo ni Tibong", just at the corner of the council
house.
God Bless, Joseph. |
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Kevin William Speer also known as Kainiwai
kndspeer@mail2me.com.au
Perth
Australia
31 May 2001
|
Ko na mauri,
Spent three happy years on Banaba 59to61. Looking forward to
visiting Tarawa in the near future. |
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Stacey
King
stacey@banaban.com
Gold Coast
Australia
12 May 2001
|
For those who have been enquiring about
travelling to Rabi. Please note that Rabi Island lik Banaba
island are 'CLOSED COMMUNITIES'. Therefore, unless you are
going to Rabi or Banaba as the guest of a local family, you
will need to contact the office of:
Rabi Council of Leaders,
Banaba House,
Pratt St,
Suva. Fiji Isles.
Phone: 303653
Fax: 300543
They will authorise your stay and arrange for accommodation at
the council run guest house on Rabi. This is the only
available accommodation on each island.
The same applies for any visit to the isolated Banaba.
Please also take into account that Rabi and Banaba are DRY
islands and no alcohol should be taken across with you. Also
please be sensitive to local customs and protocols while a
guest of the community.
For more detailed info on the subject please contact us at
info@banaban.com
Stacey King & Ken Sigrah |
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Stacey
King
stacey@banaban.com
Gold Coast
Australia
12 May 2001
|
Dear Heather,
Here are some good people for you to contact in your part of
the world. Colin Hinchcliffe, York (colin@empires.demon.co.uk)and
Natalie Minnis, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, (natalie@ecosse.net).
Both were on the HOMECOMING with us and can give you a
pretty good idea of how difficult the whole trip to Banaba
is. They should also be able to link you with more people
from their side.
Regards and good luck,
Stacey King |
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Heather Brownlie ( Nee McLellan)
www.oneill-properties.co.uk
Glasgow
Scotland
11 May 2001
|
I was born on Banaba in 1952. My father
worked for the British Phosphate Co .
I saw the home coming and was really disappointed to find
out that the island had deteriorated so much.
I am still trying to get back to the island and hopefully
will before not too long.
Would like any more up to date information. |
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Heather Brownlie ( Nee McLellan)
www.oneill-properties.co.uk
Glasgow
Scotland
11 May 2001
|
I was born on Banaba in 1952. My father
worked for the British Phosphate Co .
I saw the home coming and was really disappointed to
find out the the island had deteriorated so much.
I am still trying to get back to the island and
hopefully will before not too long.
Would like any more up to date information. |
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Stacey
King
stacey@banaban.com
Gold Coast
Australia
26 April 2001
|
Dear Anne,
You need to get in touch with Maureen White living in
Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately Maureen is not on
email.
Maureen's parents were Joe and Letitia White both from
UK who arrived on OI in 1930. Maureen was 6 years old
when she arrived there.
Here is Maureen address details
Maureen White
14A Vunabere Avenue
Bentleigh. VIC. 3204
Tel: (03) 9557 8761
Maureen should also be able to connect you up to
people in UK who also may have known you parents while
they were there. She is a great lady, now in her 70's.
She only received a phone call from UK a few months
back with someone back in the old OI days. She was
raised there and is well versed with everyone during
that period.
Hope this is a help to you and others who are looking
for family connections back to this period of
Banaba/OI history. |
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Anne Brown
anne.brown@bbc.co.uk
Scotland
26 April 2001
|
My father, Charles Thomson, was a doctor on Ocean
Island before WWII. I wonder if anyone remembers
him. My mother remembered the kindness and
friendliness of the Banaban people right up until
her death last year. I was born in Sydney after my
mother was evacuated there. I am a journalist with
the BBC in Scotland and would be so happy to hear
from anyone with links back to 1939/40. |
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Deborah Kerr
DeborahKerr@bigpond.com
Australia
23 April 2001
|
Well I found it looking good so
far,but this is all the time I have, I will have
to come back later. Can you believe it . Ken has
told me to get off the computer as the house is
going to rack and ruin. Does that sound like
someone we both know some years ago Love Deb |
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Teiti
Hawaii
22 April 2001
|
Dear Ken,
Thank you so much, indeed a very interesting
topic to date. |
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Ken
Sigrah
ken@banaban.com
Gold Coast
Australia
21 April 2001
|
Dear Teiti,
Mauri riki! YES! Is the answer to all the
questions you have raised.
1) We do have oral history and genealogies
that were first recorded in the early 1920s in
the written form and date back to the 1300s.
2) We still recognize all our traditional
cultural practices from Banaba on Rabi today.
3) Scientific evidence of the existence of the
indigenous Te Aka people has been verified by
early European photographs and written reports
of their existence documented by Harry Maude.
Dr. R.J. Lampert from the Department of
Anthropology and Sociology, Australian
National University, Canberra also carried out
an archeological dig of Te Aka village in 1965
in joint sponsorship with the Bishop Museum,
Honolulu. His findings were reported in his
article “An Archeological Investigation on
Ocean Island Central Pacific 1968.” Some
interesting scientific data was gathered.
Page 16: ‘...from the single C-14 age
determination (modern<200B.P.: ANU-22,
(Polach et al., 1967)) obtained from the wood
surviving in a post hole of the phase II
pre-maneaba building, the earliest phase in
the sequence that yielded a carbon sample for
suitable standard.’
Page 17: Report on a human femur bone removed
from Burial 3, Te Aka village. By G.C.
Scofield from the Department of Anatomy,
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
commented, ‘This is a right-sided femur from
an adult female. The bone is NOT obviously
Polynesian’.
All the artifacts and skeletal remains that
were originally taken from Te Aka by Lampert
back to Australia for further research were
returned to our people in 1998. During my
meeting with Dr. Lampert and Professor Golson
(head of department) at ANU, I was advised
that later carbon testing was carried out on
charcoal remnants that had been removed from
the cooking pits at Te Aka. These gave a
reading of between 300-400 years old.
I hope this gives you more insight into our
Banaban history.
Tiabo moa
Ken Sigrah
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Teiti Temaka
Hawaii
19 April 2001
|
Dear Ken,
Thank you so much for such a comprehensive
coverage of the topic, Wow I am very
surprised by these facts and historical
data, I have never heard of such things
before, I will be more glad if such
historical accounts could be included in
this website especially for clarification
purposes.
However just a comment, just how factual
your historical accounts can be? with
scientific evidences that cannot be retraced
by archeological and empirical means of data
analysis which do not or can not be
preserved due to the high humidity of the
place as one of the hottest spot on the face
of this Earth? Or maybe if on the other-hand
I am being recounted with your past
historical events through the means of oral
literature passed from your elders,then
perhaps should we account this to be a proof
for scientific validity and accountability?
Nevertheless, thanks for the elaboration on
my earlier question.I look forward to your
next response on the above, if you do not
mind.
Teiti.
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Lech
Tomczak
la7mfa@qsl.net
Norway
18 April 2001
|
Mouri,
I am planning to visit my friends i Buca
bay on Vanua Levu.
I understand it is not far away from Rabi
Island.
I wonder if it is possible for me and my
wife to visit Rabi
Island and maybe stay there overnight. I
have visited Kanton Island in Central
Kiribati on an Amateur Radio expedition in
fall 1999. I was facinated by the Kiribati
people, and made some friends there, which
now live on Tarawa. I have read so much
about Kiribati history, including WWII (by
my friend Peter Mc. Quarrie from NZ). It
would be great to visit part of Kiribati
while on Fiji.
Tia Boo!
Lech |
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Ken
Sigrah
ken@banaban.com
Gold Coast
Australia
17 April 2001
|
Dear Teiti,
Kona Mauri! It is my pleasure to
elaborate your queries in regard to
Banaban lost language and village names
quoted in your message.
1) Banaban language was very different
from the I-Kiribati language even before
the I-Kiribati driftaways arrived on
Banaba in the 1600s. Harry Maude in his
sworn statement for the UK Court case in
1975, regarding “The Linguistic
Evidence of the Banabans and their
Identity” said:
‘It is sometimes asserted that the
Banabans must be Gilbertese because they
speak Gilbertese. Apart from the fact
that linguistic affinity is a shaky
foundation on which to base racial
relations. That this was not always the
case is not only affirmed by the
Banabans themselves but was obvious to
me when I was living among them in
1931-32. During the course of the Lands
Commission proceedings, which were
conducted throughout in the vernacular,
I soon became aware that part of the
vocabulary, and a number of idioms,
being used by the witnesses and
assessors were not, in fact, Gilbertese
at all. As a matter of interest,
therefore, the Land Commission Clerk was
instructed to enter in a notebook words
and expressions recognised to be
distinctively Banaban. Though they
amounted to a significant quantity, even
then due to the use of the Gilbertese
Bible, of Gilbertese as the language of
instruction in the mission schools, the
influence of the many hundreds of
Gilbertese phosphate workers brought to
the island under indenture, and other
factors, the original Banaban speech had
long been swamped by introduced
Gilbertese, just as Cornish and Manx
have been swamped by English, and it is
doubtful if any of it still survives
today. Nevertheless its former existence
is an indication of separate identity
while its extinction is attributable to
pressures emanating from European
contact…’
2) Regarding the village names Tabwewa
was the name adopted by the Auriaria
clan when they first arrived on Banaba
in the 1500s. Uma was adopted by Na
Maninimate clan in the 1600s. Tabiang
was adopted by Nei Anginimaeao of Beru
in the 1600s. Buakonikai was adopted in
the late 1800s when the district of Te
Aonoanne and Toakira were algamated
together. The only village which is a
true Banaban name even before any of the
above came into existence was Te Aka,
the village of the pure Banabans of no
mix stock.
Ti abo moa
Ken Sigrah
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Teiti Temaka
temaka_@hotmail.com
Hawaii
13 April 2001
|
It is very surprising to
know that the history of Banaba, as
told in this website, reflects the
fact that their language is a lost
one. Well could someone tell me, why
do they have the names of their former
villages on Ocean Island similar to
the I-Kiribati language, such Uma,
Buakonikai, and Tabwea and Tabiang? I
am appalled by this exaggeration, that
seems to separate the Banabans and I-Kiribatians
as of different cultural backgrounds.
Why then if other neighbouring islands
such as Nauru being Christianized by
the first Kiribatian missionaries and
Tuvalu by the Samoans did not lose
their language and avoids
intercultural marriages and to say
that Banabans lose theirs in such a
short span of time? This is hilarious
and doesn't make sense. If someone
could please elaborate on this issue
more, I would be very happy. I am
really lost with such distinctions. |
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Nigel Allen
nogallen@yahoo.com
South Africa
09 April 2001
|
Son of Jim and Esther
Allen.
Do any remember us?
Nigel |
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Stacey King
stacey@banaban.com
Gold Coast
Australia
01 April 2001
|
Can anyone help with
the name of a Pacific style (based
on Hawaiian or Cook Island drums)
disco album release about 2years
ago. It is (or was) big in the
discos in Fiji and Kiribati. They
played it at Banaban wedding held
in Suva over Christmas. It has a
real driving beat and jungle type
of sound with it. Great fun at
dances. Would appreciate anyone
who can help with some details. |
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Paul Nuti
pnuti61@yahoo.com
Macedonia
29 March 2001
|
Perhaps some of
you from Rabi Island who read
this may remember me. I was a U.
S. Peace Corps Volunteer on Rabi
from 1984 to 1986 and taught
Maths at Rabi Secondary School.
It is hard for me to believe
that 15 years have passed since
I left your beautiful island. I
still look at photos from those
two wonderful years and wonder
how everyone is doing,
particularly the students I was
lucky enough to teach. I would
love to hear from anybody. I am
presently living and working in
the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia.....I am happy to see
that the story of the Banabans
is reaching a wider audience in
recent years. It is a remarkable
story. Be well, friends.......
Tiabo,
Paul Nuti |
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Lena Leqa
leqakosony3@scs.vuw.ac.nz
New Zealand
27 March
2001
|
Bula! I just
watched "Coming Home to
Banaba" for my Pacific
Island Music and Dance Paper.
It was shocking to hear about
the experiences of the
Banabans who had to move to
Rabi. To, all Banabans, Kia
Kaha!!! |
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Dania
D.Thomas@law.keele.ac.uk
United Kingdom
23 March
2001
|
Hi,
I am presently doing
research on Tito v.Waddell.I
would really like to obtain
the documents and reports
filed in court to support
the pleadings. How can I get
this documentation ? Any
help appreciated. Thank you. |
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Michael
Tarawhiti
southseasguy@hotmail.com
San Jose California
USA
11
March 2001
|
Mauri!!! I
am looking for any
Banabans living in my
area. Pliz
contact me on my e-mail
southseasguy@hotmail.com |
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Teena
J. Brown Pulu
teenaj.brownpulu@xtra.co.nz
Waikato
Aotearoa/New Zealand
10
March 2001
|
Tena
koutou e hoa ma,
Ka mihi mahana ahau kia
koutou. Greetings from
Aotearoa/New Zealand.
I've just finished
reading an opinion piece
written by Teresia K.
Teaiwa. I feel very
touched by her words,
sentiments, and
perceptions about
"identity
displacement" and
its persistent reworking
through Banaban people's
lives, language, ideas,
and practices in Rabi
and the wider Fiji
Islands. He mihi tenei
kia Teresia, kia kaha
tonu.
Teena J. Brown Pulu |
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Ken
Sigrah & Stacey
King
banaban@ion.com.au
Gold Coast
Australia
09
March 2001
|
LATEST
ELECTIONS RESULTS FOR
RABI COUNCIL OF
LEADERS
HELD IN FIJI JANUARY
2001
Tabwewa Village –
Ioabo Christopher
- Iakoba Tarutake
(re-elected and
elected as
CHAIRMAN)
Uma Village - Teatu
Rewi (re-elected)
- Tuateira Buratake
Tabiang Village -
Ioane Tabuariki
(re-elected)
- Taburongo Tekanu
Buakonikai Village –
Tabaruru Baoa
(re-elected)
- Bureia (re-elected)
It is also with great
sadness that we
announce the passing
of Councilor and Elder
Mr Keith Christopher
the week prior to
these latest
elections.
Keith was not only a
personal friend and
great supporter of the
Banaban Heritage
Society but also a
respected Elder within
the Banaban community.
He had made many
friends amongst the te
I-Matang community
over the years and was
respected as ‘one of
nature’s true
gentleman’. He will
sadly be missed by all
those who had the good
fortune to know and
work with him.
Sorry for the delay in
this news as there has
been a fault on this
MESSAGE BOARD that has
now been rectified.
Also please note that
this Banaban website
can now be accessed
through a new address:
www.banaban.com |
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Paulo
Vanualailai
vanualailai@yahoo.com
Ibaraki
Prefecture.
Hitachi City
Japan
26 January 2001
|
Cheryl,
greetings to you,
I hope that you
did receive my
e-mail I had sent
you last week,
concerning a
Banaban dessert
recipe for your
son, if not then
please inform me
immediately, thank
you. |
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Cheryl
CEHirst99@aol.com
USA
19 January
2001
|
Hello,
my son is in the
5th Grade and
had to do a
report on
Kiribati. He did
a great job and
taught me a lot
about the
customs of
Kirati. His
class is now
making a recipe
from each
country the
students did
their reports
on. If anyone
has any recipes
they would like
to offer, it
would be
appreciated very
much!
Thank You! |
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Julianna
Kim
Judagaz124@aol.com
USA
05 January
2001
|
Kam
na bane ni
mauri!!
I rang ni
kukurei n
kaitibo ma
ngkami.
Hello friends
of Banaba! I
just wanted to
express my
gratitude
towards
everyone's
support for
recognizing
Banaba as a
beautiful
little world
and working to
preserve the
culture.
I have served
as a Peace
Corps
Volunteer on
the island of
Onotoa in the
Gilbert chain
for two years
(98-00). I
have built a
strong
connection
with the
culture of
Kiribati and
have totally
immersed
myself into
the culture in
every way
possible. I
have retu rned
home to NY
just recently
and have been
looking for
ways to
maintain that
bond that i
have formed in
kiribati right
here at home.
Please contact
me about any
Kiribati
Independence
celebrations
lined up for
this new year
(July) and
i'll work
towards at
tending and
maybe prepare
"te bino"
(te kuna n
Onotoa) to
perform for
you all.
Kam bati n
rabwa. Tiabo n
reken te tai!
Turianna |
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Manabu
Kitaguchi
8wc7r@courante.plala.or.jp
OSAKA
JAPAN
05
January 2001
|
Happy
new century.
Sorry about
the typos. I
have
corrected my
email
address! .
Best regards
& love.
Manabu,Noriko,You
& Kei |
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Manab
Australia
05
January
2001
|
Happy
new
century.
Sorry
about the
typos. I
have
corrected
my email
address! .
Best
regards
&
love.
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Tearoba
Kabunare
tt024@byuh.edu
Laie
Hawaii
20
December
2000
|
Nao,
Kam raba
n ami
kakaongora
ae ngaia
tia ata
iai te
nangan
latest
news.
Kateimatoa
bwa boni
ngaia
tabekan
taekan
abara ae
Tangiraki |
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Ken
Sigrah
and
Stacey
King
banaban@ion.com.au
Gold
Coast
Australia
16
December
2000
|
This
site
will
be
unattended
until
the
8th
January
2001
as we
head
back
home
for
Christmas
celebrations
on
Rabi.
We
would
just
like
to
wish
all
our
friends
and
family
scattered
across
the
globe
a
Merry
and
safe
Christmas.
New
Rabi
Council
elections
are
due in
early
January
2001,
so
there
will
be a
lot
happening
back
home
this
Christmas.
Tiabo
moa! |
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